This community garden is named after the neighborhood volunteer group responsible for its conception and final construction in June 2000: Astoria Residents Reclaiming Our World (A.R.R.O.W.). When Sally Sterago founded the organization in 1990, the acronym stood for Astoria Residents Recycling Our Waste. Every two weeks for three years, through funding from Councilman Peter F. Vallone, Queens Borough President Claire Shulman, and the Department of Sanitation, A.R.R.O.W. volunteers gathered in front of an Astoria Genovese drug store and organized the community’s recycling. In 1993, however, the City of New York instituted its own curb-side recycling program. At that point, the 50 A.R.R.O.W. volunteers decided to change their name to its present form and to shift their focus to community involvement.